The Solitary of Juan Fernandez, or the Real Robinson Crusoe

.-A Mother and her Little Ones.-The Flock.-Fête in the Island; Pacific Combats

r trick of Marimonda, risen earlier than usual, he half opens his eyes, sees nothing, and places himself again in a posture to continue his nap. The same tickling i

he raises his head. Hi

s walls; they are playing before his door, running hither and thither through the crevices of his roof, multiplying themselves on his rack and shelf; all biting, gnawing,

s couch, and immediately crushes two

erched on the strong branch of a sapota-tree. By her piteous and chilly appearance, her tangled and wet hair, he doubts not but she has pas

, sad, but still gentle and caressing, and with gest

led with oil, every thing is sacked, torn in pieces, afloat; for the water has at last made its way through the crevices of the mountain. To put the climax to his misfortune,

o his life, only the few charges contained in his portable powder-horn, and in the barrels of his guns. Th

r have driven the rats from their holes; henc

what can Selkirk do, redu

es as an ally, and aids him in putting them to flight; but their combined efforts are ineffectual. A

ing ourselves of a protector. God only knows what he does, and he has admitted apparent evil, as a principle, into the admirable composition of his universe; he suffers the wicked to live. Selkirk had been more severe than God, and he repents it. If his poor cats ha

tinual thunder. The sun, though garué[1] absorbs the remainder of the inundation. Followed by Marimonda, Selkirk, for the first time, has ventured to the woods and thickets between the

1

which sometimes, and especially after the rai

te nose, and brown whiskers, is stationed at a little distanc

rom the general massacre; the l

e herself clad in skin, the cat recoils, ascending; the monkey follows, pursues her from branch to branch, quite to the top of the cedar. Struck on the shoulder with a blow of the claw,

the object of victory, seizes her vigorously by the skin of the neck, at the risk of strangling her; with the other hand he grasps her around the body. The difficulty is now to carry her. Fortunately he has his game-bag. With one hand he holds her pressed against the fork of the tree; with the other arm he reaches his game-bag, opens it; the conquered animal, half dead, has not made, during this manoeuvre, a single movement o

ppeared, and left no trace. In vain his eyes are turned on all sides; he sees nothing, neither

n an eminence of the False Coquimbo, his monkey, bent double, in an attitude of contemplation, appearing very a

e directs himsel

s, he finds, crouching, still out of breath with her struggle and her race, his fugiti

, kills the mother, and ca

their departure, though it prevents the evil they might

ed, and the little powder which remains is scarcely suffic

how preciously he preserves it to-day. While it is there, he can still believe himself armed, still powerful; he has not entirely exhaust

upplying the place of the services it has rendered; it is time to realize his dream, and, according to

favorable auspices; his young trees, firmly rooted, are growing rapidly beneath the double influence of heat and moisture; at the axil of some of their leave

ddress or stratag

p themselves usually in the steep and mountainous parts of the island. To leap from rock to rock, to attempt to vie with the

vive. After long waiting without any result, he finds in his snares a coati, some little Guinea pigs; here is one

their prey living, have recourse to the lasso, a long cord terminated by a slip-noos

re than fifty feet long; he tries it; he exercises it now against a tuft of leaves detached from a bush, now against some pro

rge and spacious, that his young cattle may bound and sport at their ease; high, that they may respect the limits he assigns them. In one corner, supported by solid posts, he builds a shed, s

n they have learned to recognize his voice, then, and then only, will he permit them to wander and browse on the neighboring hills, under the direction of

ose gentle phantoms which he creates, and by which he surro

the central part of his island. Several days pass amid fruitless attempts, and when the delicately-carved foliage of the mimo

ing with him two young kids, with scarcely perceptible horns, and reddish skin, varied with large brown spo

eeds that of his cats; and he takes pleasure in seeing them leap and

ccording to his hateful calculations, he had limited the term of my life to the last charge which my gun should contain; this last charge is still there! Of what use will it be to me? Why do I need it? Are not my resources for subsistence more certain and numerous to-day than before? What then is wanting? The society o

which were still wanting, and of the meth

oning on the margin of his Bible, resolved to celebra

the same table with himself: the cats shared in the feast; the goats roved around, stretching up to gaze with their blue eyes on the baskets of fruits, and returning to browse on the grass beneath the feet of the g

emains of the baskets were thrown to the most skilful

mplated the capricious bounds, the riotous sports of his cats and kids, their graceful postures, their fra

rself up like a ball and drops on the ground; the foliage crackles beneath her fall, which seems as if it must be mortal; for her, this is only sport. Without altering the position of her limbs, she suddenly stops in her rapid descent, by means of her prehensile tail, that fifth hand, so powerful, with which nature has endowe

rds the sea, his brow is suddenly overclouded. At the expiration of a few moments of an uneasy and agitated observation, he utters an exclamatio

st percei

rom the neighboring island, or some point of the continent!' And looking again through his copper tube, he clearly distinguishes three

d his voyage in these regions. The time which he had fixed for my

reased more and more the hopes of Selkirk, when the Spanish fl

conceal myself? In the mountains! Yes, I can there succeed in escaping them! But, the wretches

the brig. The latter, having tacked several times, as if to get

r enemy? I am only a colonist, an exile, a deserter from the English navy. They owe me protection, assistance, as a Christian. If they r

on the shore or on the hill. He needs hewn wood,

e lattice-work from his inclosure, the pillars and the roof from

d in the inner folds of the heart of this man, who had just now f

where the trees, embarrassed with vines and dry briers, closely interwoven, calcined by the burning reflections of the sun on the

armfuls of chips, bark and leaves. The flame soon runs along the bushes which encircle the thicket; and, when the sun

o catch the distant sound of a vessel; but nothing presents itself to his glance upon the luminous and sparklin

without going beyond its bounds, and the sea, calm and tranq

e still beholds the sports of his cats and his kids, but no longer smiles at them; Marimonda, by way of

again resorted to the shell-fish, which his stomach loathes; to the sea-crabs, of which he is tired; he needs other nourishment to restor

eem disposed to obey. Notwithstanding his orders, she follows him, stops when he turns, recommences to follow him, and, by her supplicating looks and expressive gestures, seeks to obtain the permission which he persists in refusing. At last Selkirk speaks severely, and she

d! Marimonda passed the night in aw

, and the cabin remained deserted, and Marimonda in vain scaled the

d becom